Senate Bill 483: Every person with a chronic pain condition is adversely affected by new opioid prescribing laws.

02/11/2016 — Nancy Sajben MD

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Support Senate Bill 48e if you want doctors to practice pain management, rather than trust your pain medication in the hands of the police, CDC, and FDA. See letter below from the National Fibromyalgia & Chronic Pain Association.

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I don’t know anyone who wants the CDC to slash the dose of opioids and disregard specialist’s judgement: CDC proposes a radical experiment in rather violent cuts in dose, across the board, with no research, and under harsh pressure. Everyone will suffer because elected and appointment officials act from fear of addiction, fearof suicide among addicts, and prompted by anti-opioidists, against the judgement of the American Pain Society. Why bother accepting judgement of trained specialists? Plug in the Robotic AI and fall into line. The rich person in pain will do what they want, as they always have. But those dependent on healthcare insurers have already seen them deny 20 mg morphine per day, not the 100 mg per day that CDC wants radically cut.

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Addiction is a brain disease.

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Do you seriously think you will treat addiction and deaths from illegal street drugs by cutting the analgesic dose of pain patients?

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Do you think Philip Seymour Hoffman wanted to kill himself? I don’t. But he had no way to guarantee the dose he was using, and had to hide his addiction on his bathroom floor, hiding from friends and family. Imagine a safe clinic, rescue medication. He wanted no more addiction counselors. He wanted his drug

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Give addicts their drug. Free drug. Safe clinics. Standby with rescue meds. Whatever they want. Do we want them to choose theft and murder so they can get their $1.3 million each year for drug. Opioids, amphetamines cost pennies. Give it free.

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Would you throw your diabetic grandmother in jail? You’re not an addict. Why are they smashing your dose. You will suffer, it ain’t gonna be easy.

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Haven’t we learned from prohibition? From research in Portugal, and 11 countries, free clinics for drugs of abuse save billions. It saves lives. Leave our pain patients treatment in our hands. Why should CDC practice pain management when all they care about is addiction, death, overdoses?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported recently that the 28,647 deaths from prescription opioids and heroin in 2014 were a record. The agency said that more than six in 10 drug overdose deaths were caused by opioids that year.

West Virginia, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Kentucky and Ohio had the highest rates of drug overdose deaths per 100,000 people in 2014. North Dakota, New Hampshire, Maine, New Mexico and Alabama saw the largest increases in their death rates.

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Honey, CDC don’t care about pain. The public cares about addiction, all their girls and boys dying from prescriptions.

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Wake up and legalize all drugs, offer free clinics, free drugs, and voluntary behavioral therapy. It will save the country billions of dollars, pain patients will no longer get treated like addicts, you will get rid of narco-mafias – drugs are free! ferew murders, crime, deaths.

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What kind of crazy fails to learn from research – Portugal and 11 countries that legalized drugs – and fails to learn Prohibition breeds crime.

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One of my patients found another pain specialist because she didn’t want to hear all this. It makes her nervous. She wants her drugs. Ain’t gonna work for long. Bury your head in the sand. The country does not care about pain: they will not invest in pain research. Live with it.

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America cares about addiction. Deaths. Headlines. Votes.

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Every person with a chronic pain condition is adversely affected by new opioid prescribing laws.
Supporting Senate Bill 483 is our best opportunity to receive federal protection for access to pain care.

Urgent Call to Action
on Ensuring Patient Access Bill in U.S. Senate

February 10, 2016

Dear NFMCPA Supporter,

None of us like controversy. I’m writing because as people with chronic pain, we are unavoidably being caught up in the U.S. national efforts to end opioid abuse. National Fibromyalgia & Chronic Pain Association (NFMCPA) is very concerned and has heard from many of you who are desperate about not being able to find pain relief. Recent opioid policies address the many overdose deaths in the addiction community while significantly restricting the ability of pain patients to receive healthcare.

The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote this Thursday, February 11, 2016, on Senate Bill 483: “Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act of 2015.” The NFMCPA supports Senate Bill 483, and we urgently ask for you to contact your U.S. Senator(s) and let them know of your support for this legislation if you live in AL, AZ, CA, IL, IA, DE, VT, NY, SC, TX, UT, RI, MN, LA, CT, GA, or NC, or know someone in those states who can take action. An easy way to do that is to click here for the quick link on our website. A copy of the bill can be found by clicking here.

Chronic pain is a disease. People with life-altering pain suffer more now as a consequence of new opioid prescribing policies affecting their access to prescribed pain medications. Doctors don’t have effective treatment alternatives to offer, mostly due to the lack of insurance coverage and minimal scientific research of adjunct therapies. People with pain must take action to have these major access to care barriers included in the national conversation about prescription opioid medications.

Chronic pain seizes the brain. I know what I’m talking about. And so do you. It stops your thinking, your activity, and wears you out. Your body becomes afraid of more pain and that it will never stop. This pain becomes impossible to live with 24/7.

Chronic pain solutions belong in the presidential candidate primary debates and on the agenda of every member of Congress. The national “debate” about opioids is not a debate at all. It is a national effort to create legislation and policy at every level to drastically cut access to opioid medications, with little or no regard for millions of people with chronic pain who rely on these medications for pain relief. When individuals cannot get necessary care, unmanaged pain harms quality of life, relationships, and the ability to work and sleep. Directly or indirectly, chronic pain touches every member of the community and their families.

Thank you for taking a few minutes to support legislation that will help us for a lifetime.

2 Responses to “Senate Bill 483: Every person with a chronic pain condition is adversely affected by new opioid prescribing laws.”

I am working with a doctor who is considering opening an office in South Orange county to see patients to do Ketamine infusions. Would you have any time available to get together and have a brief conversation about this?